I've been a fan of Japanese popular music for 40 years, and have managed to collect a lot of material during that time. So I decided I wanted to talk about Showa Era music with like-minded fans. My particular era is the 70s and 80s (thus the "kayo kyoku"). The plus part includes a number of songs and artists from the last 30 years and also the early kayo. So, let's talk about New Music, aidoru, City Pop and enka.
Credits
I would like to give credit where credit is due. Videos are from YouTube and other sources such as NicoNico while Oricon rankings and other information are translated from the Japanese Wikipedia unless noted.
I forgot to put the above within my Halloween articles last month but better late than never. Quite amazing how good-natured everyone was when Bushman "attacked" them. But wow, that first maid's scream!
In keeping with that theme, among the anime this Fall season, I've been hearing about this show called "Kyuuketsuki Sugu Shinu"（吸血鬼すぐ死ぬ...The Vampire Dies In No Time） which seems to mix the horror-comedy trope with "The Odd Couple" as a death-prone vampire from the wilds of Saitama Prefecture (hey, why not?) and a vampire hunter end up together in a very tense but comedic relationship. Unlike a couple of other shows that I know that are broadcasting right now, I haven't been able to catch any full episodes of this one, unfortunately.
The opening credits certainly make it inviting for me to try to scout down "Kyuuketsuki Sugu Shinu" as vampire Dralc and vampire hunter Ronald do the boogie softshoe while the jazzy opening theme plays.
This would be the logically titled "DIES IN NO TIME" sung by Dralc himself, aka veteran seiyuu Jun Fukuyama（福山潤）. Written by Fukuyama and Yohei Matsui（松井洋平）from TECHNOBOYS PULCRAFT GREEN-FUND fame and composed by Ryohei（猟平）, Menma（めんま）and 41730, the seiyuu really gets down on his jazz boogie and in a much lower voice than I have been accustomed to since I've known his vocal chops primarily for providing the very first ending theme for the wonderful 2012 anime "Shirokuma Café"（しろくまカフェ）as the squeaky-voiced Panda. "DIES IN NO TIME" came out as his 4th single in October 2021 with a No. 18 ranking on Oricon.
As one YouTube commenter has mentioned, that opening credit sequence is enough for me with "DIES IN NO TIME" to want to watch the actual show. But for now, I will have to be satisfied with the various excerpts.
First, a bit of background. The fellow you see in the video is Iyami (イヤミ), one of the characters from the famous "Osomatsu-kun"（おそ松くん）which started out as a manga by Fujio Akatsuka（赤塚不二夫）in 1962 before becoming an anime in 1966. Iyami has become legendary since he came up with what has become the all-round international anime gesture for shock: standing on one foot while making an angular shape with his body and arms before screeching "SHEEH!" It became a meme even before memes officially existed and it has since jumped into the 3D world. I've seen comedians use it all the time on TV and even Godzilla used it once in one of his movies....at the cost of several buildings and probably several hundred more lives.
And yet, Iyami was supposed to be just one of the silly supporting characters for the main sextuplet of ne'er-do-wells (known as NEETs in Japan) on "Osomatsu-kun". That one gesture probably upended the hierarchy. I never saw any of the anime variations of the franchise but even I knew "SHEEH!" and the gesture.
To continue on, after I did the article on the opening and ending themes of the anime "Kono Bijutsu-bu ni wa Mondai ga aru"（この美術部には問題がある！）yesterday, I innocently decided to check out whether the three fellows of TECHNOBOYS PULCRAFT GREEN-FUND had ever done stuff outside of the anison realm. And I think I came across at least one of their more ambient efforts on YouTube, but then after, I came across the above video featuring the song "Same Six Faces ~ Konya wa Saiko!!!!!!" (Tonight's The Best!!!!!!). What happened afterwards was the equivalent of a spider (the song) snagging a juicy fly (namely, me) for dinner. Dang, welcome back to the disco 80s! I was ready to order a mirror ball from Amazon after listening to this...2 or 3 times in succession.
Yup, the Technoboys came up with another earworm late last year, and this time, I didn't hear too many of those syn-drums that have become a sign of their work on their another anime. "Same Six Faces" turned out to be the ending theme for the sequel series for "Osomatsu-kun", "Osomatsu-san"（おそ松さん）, which came out in October 2015 before finishing its run at the end of March 2016. The original series had the Brothers Matsuno as these six scallywag kids but this new series had them as grownups but still not too mature.
I never got to see the series and reading and watching some of the clips, I have a feeling that "Osomatsu-san" is not really my anime buddy's type of show despite the mostly nutso humour involved. But man, is that ending theme catchy! "Same Six Faces" as it was used in the ending credits had the actual voice cast bantering and singing over the Technoboys' delivery with the seiyuu for Iyami, Kenichi Suzumura（鈴村健一）, leading the way (complete with the background chorus coolly crooning the "SHEEH!"). As for the Brothers Matsuno themselves, I was surprised in that it looks like the entire cast of "Shirokuma Cafe"（しろくまカフェ）decided to re-unite to voice the characters. Takahiro Sakurai（櫻井孝宏）, Jun Fukuyama（福山潤）, Hiroshi Kamiya（神谷浩史）, Daisuke Ono（小野大輔）, Yuuichi Nakamura（中村悠一）and Miyu Irino（入野自由）go all in.
Released in December 2015, the single went Gold and it went as high as No. 3 on Oricon. Now I feel like grabbing one of my old 80s compilation CDs and searching for S-Express again!
Ah, before I finish off...the current lineup of Technoboys is Tomohisa Ishikawa, Tohru Fujimura and Yohei Matsui（石川智久・フジムラトヲル・松井洋平）.
For my friend and I, it's been an unsettled picture in terms of the newest anime season. We caught some of the pilot episodes of the new shows a few weeks ago but it looks like things may be a bit leaner than usual. However, the two of us have caught onto one of the more bizarre shows in recent memory and I say this as someone who has seen and enjoyed anime that involved animals in a "Cheers"-like setting and heroines who use high technology and the sound of music to battle evildoers.
Yup, I'm talking about "Sekko Boys"（石膏ボーイズ...Plaster Boys）, an 8-minute comedy series about an aidoru group composed of 4 plaster busts: St. Giorgio, Medici, Mars and Hermes, and the manager who has to take care of the....guys. And they are all voiced by some of the star male seiyuus who pull out the full ham.
We've got Tomokazu Sugita and Daisuke Ono（杉田智和・小野大輔）from "The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya", Shinnosuke Tachibana（立花慎之介）from "Gundam Build Fighters" and Jun Fukuyama（福山潤）from "Shirokuma Cafe" and "Chuunibyo demo Koi ga Shitai" as the titular Sekko Boys also singing the ending theme called "Hoshizora Rendezvous" (Starry Night Rendezvous). It sounds a bit like your run-of-the-mill Johnny's Jimusho aidoru tune (the title sounds like an 80s female aidoru song) but that intro had me thinking of the Bay City Rollers' "Saturday Night" way back in the 1970s. The song was written by Bonjour Suzuki（ボンジュール鈴木）and composed by Masuda Moveman（満寿田ムーブマン）.
Not sure how "Sekko Boys" is gonna do this season but I gotta give my respects at the way-out-of-left-field idea.
Ahhh...good times. A few years ago, I was watching "Ixion Saga DT" which was a mix of adventure, sword & sorcery, and hilarious innuendo-laden farce about a gamer who suddenly found himself in the game that he was playing in the real world and then joining the motley group of warriors including a noble hunk of a man, a transsexual maid and a tsundere princess (well, far more tsun than dere). One of the running themes was the testicular humour on hand along with the balls-to-the-wall (sorry) action.
There were a couple of seiyuu in there, Jun Fukuyama（福山潤）as Mariandale the maid and Hiroshi Kamiya（神谷浩史）as the not-so-villainous Erecpyle Dukakis who were also in a far more gentler anime at around the same time with their own contributions to the theme songs.
They were also involved in the opening and ending themes for "Ixion Saga DT" to a smaller extent. And true to the balls-to-the-wall pace, the band Golden Bomber（ゴールデンボンバー）kicks them up to warp speed.
Just an aside about Golden Bomber...the band has been a fixture on the Kohaku Utagassen for the last few years singing "Memeshikute"（女々しくて...Unmanly）. Active since 2004, I knew these guys were heavy into their Visual Kei thing but had no idea that they were actually an air band. I kinda see them as a combination of KISS and the comical Japanese outfit The Drifters. The current lineup has Sho Kiryuin（鬼龍院翔）, Yutaka Kyan（喜矢武豊）, Jun Utahiroba（歌広場淳 ）and Kenji Darvish（樽美酒研二）. That last fellow has been a regular sight on TV Japan via an NHK kids' program.
Anyways, opener "DT Suteru" (Losing My DT) always got the party started with the band, called Golden Ixion Bomber for the purposes of the single, starting off chanting "D, T, D, T...". The original game was called "Ixion Saga Dimensional Transfer" but as part of the bawdy humour of the anime, DT also stood for "dotei" or "virgin" which was the unfortunate nickname slapped onto the snarky main character of Kon on entering the world of Mira. The good guys of the cast including Mariandale put their two yen in as Kiryuin begged the girl to help him lose his DT. I didn't quite understand the lyrics as they were sung but judging by how my anime buddy giggled, I gathered that it was very much in the spirit of the show.
"DT Suteru" was based on a track from their second BEST compilation, "Golden Best: Brassiere" from 2010 originally titled "Moto Kare Korosu"（元カレ殺ス...Gonna Kill Your Ex-Boyfriend）. For the re-modeled version for "Ixion Saga", vocalist Kiryuin wrote and composed the song with co-writing credits for Yashikin（やしきん）and Kumo Yamada（山田くも）.
The trio also took care of the first ending theme for the show, "Let's Go ED". I may not have gotten the entire gist of the opener but even I had to laugh at the shout of "Gimme some BALLS!". Ah, so this is from the bad guys' side of things, and yep, Hiroshi Kamiya and his crew came in here. The innuendo continued to hold sway with ED not only standing for Erecpyle Dukakis but also for that sad condition "erectile dysfunction". And one of Erec's problems and running gags was somewhere in that area. I'm not a huge rock fan but having both of these themes for "Ixion Saga" was perfect. One to pump you up for the episode and the other to finish things off with a bang.
And as was the case for "DT Suteru", "Let's Go ED" came from another Golden Bomber original song "Let's Go KY" which is on another BEST album, "Golden Hour" also from 2010. I'm assuming that the KY here refers to the formerly "in" phrase "kuuki yomenai" which is roughly defined as "can't read the tea leaves" so I guess the translation for the title can be "Let's Go, Clueless". I'm pretty sure that the original song wasn't particularly a song of encouragement for Kentucky.
The single with both songs went as high as No. 5 on Oricon. Unlike poor Erec, it stood tall.
I've just about finished my second round of watching the heartful and humourous"Shirokuma Cafe"(Polar Bear Cafe), and it's become quite a classic in my eyes with seiyuu apparently playing zany characters against type, Shirokuma's running gag of punning everyone to distraction, and the multiple ending theme songs sung by just about the entire cast.
Over the past few years since the ending of the series, though, I've seen one song on YouTube also sung by each voice actor in character that never popped up on the series at all. Given the simple and appropriate title of "Shirokuma Cafe", it's a light and funky tune written and composed by the lady behind all those ending themes, Saki（紗希）, that could have been a great promotion jingle for the actual coffeehouse itself if Shirokuma had ever decided to advertise beyond the pages of a magazine. That one line of "...happuru, pippuru, poppu na apple pie!"（はっぷる、ぴっぷる、ぽっぷなアップルパイ！） should have gotten Saki an extra bonus in her paycheque.
Each of the seiyuu give their own personality quirks to the song. Takahiro Sakurai（櫻井孝宏）as the quietly droll (and perhaps insane) Shirokuma happily trolls his listeners with his way-over-the-top delivery. Methinks Shirokuma may have been drinking something other than coffee under the counter before he hit the mike. I'm sure it took the edge off.
Then, there is Jun Fukuyama（福山潤）as cute Panda. Panda's version apparently had the cutey go Jim Nabors on me and go deep in the voice. Frankly, I think he sings like Jun Fukuyama.
Hiroshi Kamiya（神谷浩史）as Penguin isn't quite as nuts as Shirokuma but he also has his own snappy take on "Shirokuma Cafe". He sounds quite happy, too, since aside from his dream of being a rakugo comedian, he has also wanted to be the finest karaoke singer in town. I've been reading some surprised/delighted responses on YouTube for Kamiya's rendition since apparently the seiyuu is usually known for taking far more badass roles.
Aya Endo's（遠藤綾）Sasako sings her "Shirokuma Cafe" much like how she is in the cafe: straight, sweet and adorable. There are no wackadoodle sidesteps in her performance.
If I included every character's rendition of the song, this article would probably ring alarms in the Blogger hierarchy. And yet, I feel compelled to put in Mei Mei's supremely cheerful take to wrap things up here. I'm not sure if Kana Hanazawa's（花澤香菜）sister panda became the breakout character of the series but her orgasmic excitement at any thought concerning her love of Handa-san the zookeeper has most likely left a permanent impression in the fans' minds....and a ringing in the ears. No coffee for her!
It's a bit of a pity that "Shirokuma Cafe" the song didn't make it into "Shirokuma Cafe" the show, but hopefully there is an album out there which has the various seiyuus' versions.
My knowledge of anime and seiyuu (voice actor) is very limited compared to my friend who could pretty much lecture on the subject at university. However, I know what I like....programs with heart and loopy humour no matter what the setting (a kickass starship is also a nice touch). Several months ago, my buddy introduced the first couple of episodes from a slice-of-life anime adapted from a manga titled "Shirokuma Café"（しろくまカフェ...Polar Bear Café） which had come out in early 2012. For me, I consider it a mix of the American sitcom "Cheers" and the animal kingdom with the main stars being a realistically rendered (for anime, anyways) polar bear, panda and penguin. I have recently been able to get the entire run of "Shirokuma Café" so have been enjoying the appealing weirdness of a polar bear running a cafe out in the Tokyo 'burbs with his buddies popping by frequently like Norm and Cliff.
Jun Fukuyama（福山潤）is the seiyuu behind the lazy-pants Panda. Apparently, Fukuyama is much more famously known through his role in "Code Geass" as Lelouch Lamperouge but as of this writing, I can only identify him as the whiny but cuddly member of ailuropoda melanoleuca. And as any voice actor will do from time to time, Fukuyama also provides his vocal cords in character to the first of several ending themes for "Shirokuma Cafe". "Bamboo☆Scramble" was written and composed by Saki（紗希）and has that cheerful strut-happy beat with a Chinese twist that reflects somewhat on the droll good humour and camaraderie on the series which lasted a year.
